Sam Olumekun, INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee released a statement on Wednesday, July 3, confirming the incident, which was reported by Sam Egwu, the state’s Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC).

According to the statement, the attack occurred around 2 PM when youths in the area, protesting against the activities of bandits in their communities, targeted the INEC office along with other government facilities.

It read;  “Although no casualties were reported, the building has been extensively damaged. Office furniture and other movable and immovable materials, including 10 electric generators, 300 ballot boxes, and 270 voting cubicles, were destroyed in the attack. The attention of security agencies has been drawn to the incident, and they have already deployed their personnel to the area.”

Announcing the votes polled by the respective candidates at the federal constituency’s collation centre located at Nworuibi in the Mbaitoli Local Government Area, the Federal Constituency Returning Officer, Prof Boniface Okoro, said that the APC candidate polled the highest number of votes.

Okoro, disclosed that Amadi got a total of 21, 372 votes while his closest rival, Uche Ogbuagu, of the Labour Party, scored a total of 18, 296 votes.

The incumbent and the candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, Henry Nwawuba, garnered 7, 202 votes, the Peoples Democratic Party candidate, Usmond Ukanacho, polled 6,681 votes, Chinonso Uba of the African Democratic Congress scored 4, 100 votes, while Godstime Chukwunuikem of the Social Democratic Party got 246 votes.

There was wild jubilation in the area immediately after the 29-year-old was returned as the winner of the election.

INEC had declared that Tinubu polled 8,794,726 votes to win the election.

The commission declared that the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, came second with  6,984,520 votes, while it announced Labour Party’s Peter Obi as the second runner-up with  6,101,533 votes.

But Atiku, Obi and some other parties rejected the results announced by INEC and heeded for the tribunal with prayers that the election should be nullified.

All the opposition parties challenging Tinubu’s victory joined INEC as a co-defendant.

In its defence to the various petitions, filed through its team of lawyers led by A. B. Mahmoud (SAN), INEC described Atiku’s petition as “grossly incompetent, vague and academic, saying it was an abuse of the court process.”

INEC affirmed that having scored at least one-quarter of the valid votes cast in 29 states, which is over and above the 24 states threshold required by the constitution in addition to scoring the highest number of the lawful votes cast at the election, Tinubu was properly declared winner and returned as the President-elect.

On the issue of Tinubu not winning the FCT, INEC argued that going by the provisions of the 1999 Constitution, “the FCT has the status of a state and ought to be recognised as one of the states of the federation.”

INEC insisted that it declared Tinubu as winner of the election, considering that he “scored highest valid votes cast at the election and at least 25 per cent of the votes cast in not less than two-thirds of the states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.”

“The 1st respondent pleads and shall at the trial of this suit rely on all the Electoral Forms including but not limited to Forms ECSA, BCSB, ECSC, ECSD and ECBE used in the course of the Presidential Election held on the 25th day of February 2023,” INEC said.

“The FCT, beyond being the capital of Nigeria, has no special status over and above the other 36 states of the federation to require a candidate in the presidential election to obtain at least 25 per cent of the votes cast in the FCT before being declared winner of the presidential election.

“The 1st respondent shall also contend at the trial of this suit that the FCT is regarded as the 37th state of the federation and as such, a candidate needs to score 25 per cent of the valid votes cast in at least two-thirds of 37 states to be declared as winner in the presidential election.

“The 1st respondent avers that the 2nd respondent scored 25 per cent of the valid in 29 states of the federation as stated above.”

Addressing Atiku’s petition, INEC told the tribunal that the PDP candidate could not have been declared winner as he failed to score at least one-quarter of the votes cast in at least two-thirds of the 36 states of the federation.

INEC also insisted that the election was conducted in substantial compliance with the Electoral Act.

“The 1st respondent further avers that in compliance with extant laws and regulations, it diligently discharged its duties when it collated the 1st petitioner’s scores at the election, which aggregates to 6,984, 520, winning only 21 number of states to wit: Adamawa, Akwa lbom. Bauchi. 83) else. Bomo, Delta. Ekiti, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwam. Nasarawa, Niger, Osun, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe and Zamfara.

“The 1st respondent avers that the petitioners who on the one hand, alleged various irregularities and non-compliance in the conduct of the election conveniently accepted the validity of their scores as declared by the 1st respondent, upon which they have prayed that the 1st petitioner be returned the winner of the election and sworn in as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, having purportedly scored the majority of votes cast.”

The electoral body said that it kept its promise to Nigerians “in conducting free, fair, transparent and credible elections by deploying the BVAS device in conducting accreditation of voter’s electronically and uploading scanned copies of polling unit election results to the IRev portal.”

INEC also asserted that uploading election results to the lReV portal is not a condition precedent to the declaration of the winner of an election under the Electoral Act.

“The Act does not require the 1st respondent to transmit results to the IRev portal before determining or declaring the winner of the presidential election.

The 1st respondent states further that it had all the physical hard copies of the results sheets from which it collated and tabulated the scores of the candidates. It states further that the result sheets were uploaded via its e -transmission system to the IRev portal.

“In further answer to paragraph 21 of the petition, the 1st respondent states that the BVAS device was, despite the glitches experienced on the day of the presidential election, still a game changer.

“It was properly deployed and used to verify and accredit registered voters. It was also used to upload scanned copies of polling unit results through the e-transmission system to the IRev portal in the presidential election held on 25th February 2023.

“The 1st respondent further states that the BVAS device was not designed to and did not transmit election results to the phantom Electronic Collation System as alleged by the petitioners.

“The 1st respondent denies that it prescribed or established a system to electronically transfer or transmit the results and the accreditation data from polling units to an electronic collation system.”

Meanwhile, Tinubu’s party, the All Progressives Congress, has also urged the tribunal to dismiss the various petitions challenging its candidate’s victory.

Among other grounds, Tinubu’s challengers had insisted that he was not qualified to run for the presidential election, citing a forfeiture case against him in the US.

But in reply, the APC contended that much of the claims by the opposition parties were vague, bogus and speculative.

The APC admitted that Tinubu forfeited $460,000 to the US government, but it refuted the claim that the President-elect was convicted of a criminal offence.

“The 2nd respondent (Tinubu) was never at any point in time fined the sum of $460,000.00 for an offense involving dishonesty or any other offence in

United States of America Vs funds in account 263226700 held by  First Heritage Bank in the name of Bola Tinubu,” it stated.

It argued that Tinubu “was never made a party in the said case No: 93C4483 between United States of America V Funds in Account 263226700 held by First Heritage Bank in the name of Bola Tinubu & 2 Ors.”

It stated that the said case was not a  criminal matter that could have resulted in a criminal conviction.

Rather, the party asserted that it was a civil forfeiture proceeding against the funds in various accounts opened in Tinubu’s name.

“The American Consulate, Lagos Nigeria revealed that there was no record whatsoever of any criminal arrest, warrants and/or conviction regarding the 2nd respondent,” the APC said.

The team, according to City Lawyer, is to be led by former Nigerian Bar Association President, Abubakar Mahmoud (SAN). Other members of the team are Stephen Adehi (SAN), Oluwakemi Pinheiro (SAN), Miannaya Essien (SAN), and Abdullahi Aliyu (SAN).

It was gathered from a member of the legal team that four SANs who are staff members of INEC’s legal department are also members of the team alongside Garba Hassan, Musa Attah, and Patricia Obi.

INEC budgeted over N3bn to defend the results of the February 25 presidential and national assembly elections and the March 18 governorship and state assembly polls

several candidates who lost in the elections have filed petitions at the presidential and state election petition tribunals to challenge the outcome of the polls.

So far, over 100 election petitions have been filed by aggrieved candidates and their parties across the country.

The presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar; the Labour Party, Peter Obi; the Action Alliance, Solomon Okangbuan; Allied Peoples Movement, Chichi Ojei, have also filed petitions for the nullification of the presidential election results.

The commission had on March 1, 2023, declared Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, as the winner of the February 25 presidential election.

The electoral umpire will resume the suspended collation of results by 4 pm, Vanguard reports.

Head of Voter Education and Publicity, Mrs. Rebecca Jim, confirmed plans to resume collation of the governorship results.

According to her, both the presiding officer and state administrative secretary invited to INEC headquarters in Abuja, over the controversy from the Obingwa results, were on their way back to Abia, to complete the process.

INEC suspended further collation of governorship election results in some parts of Abia and Enugu states.

This followed the invasion of the INEC office in Obingwa Local Government Area in Abia by thugs on Sunday, March 19, 2023.

The thugs also held INEC officials hostage in relation to the collation of results from the Local Government Area.

However, the electoral umpire suspended the collation following allegations of infractions, especially over-voting in some areas.

The deaths were recorded in 10 states out of the 28 where governorship elections were conducted, according to the report.

The report said at least six persons were killed on election day in Rivers and Benue states; while five died in Delta, three in Lagos,  two in Akwa-Ibom, and one each in Cross River, Ebonyi,  Niger,  Kebbi and Katsina states.

The organisation said the casualty figure might be more as it was still working to confirm more incidents.

The report read partly,  “The March 18 governorship and Houses of Assembly elections, held three weeks after the presidential and National Assembly elections, were characterised by poor turnout but many had hoped that the 2023 elections would be better, given the initial widespread enthusiasm.

“Our research shows that logistical issues and violence resurfaced and Nigeria’s elections risk normalising ethnic-based voter suppression. Thugs hijacked and burnt election materials in Ogbia, Bayelsa, making the Independent National Electoral Commission officials flee to Yenagoa for safety. ‘Iceland’ members were accused of threatening non-PDP voters in Rivers, while some thugs forcefully demanded access to election materials in Akwa Ibom.

The most striking examples of violence are from Lagos and other states where a long-standing ruling party wants to stay in power forcefully.”

The report also said the flaws in the just-concluded elections ‘’leaves Nigeria in danger of illegitimate leadership, which will erode trust in the electoral process.’’

A security expert, Jackson Ojo, said INEC and security agencies must be overhauled to prevent a repeat ugly incidents in the future.

He said, “Nigerians placed so much hope in this election but ended up being disappointed.  The widespread violence is totally unacceptable.  This election is not worthy of being called one. The electoral body and security agencies failed Nigerians.

“They would not say there were no signals,  they even failed to act in situations where supporters of these candidates were making inciting comments. What we need is a total overhaul of INEC and security agencies.”

The governorship election was held in 28 of the 36 states of the federation, while the state assemblies’ poll was conducted in all the states.

As of 10pm, a total of 77,143 results for the governorship and state House of Assembly elections had been uploaded to the iREV portal.

Opposition parties and many observers knocked INEC over its failure to immediately upload results on its portal after the February 25 presidential and National Assembly elections. The commission explained that technical glitches marred the results upload, but many dismissed the explanation.

INEC had however given assurances that the governorship and state Houses of Assembly elections would be uploaded in real time as it had rectified the issues.

Checks by showed that some results had been uploaded in 28 states. They include Ogun State, with 3,631; Plateau, 2,765; Zamfara, 961; Yobe, 1,438; Taraba, 4,869; Sokoto, 1,310; Rivers, 4,301; Oyo, 4,907; Niger, 1,965; and Nasarawa, 2,291.

Others are Lagos, 7,375 results; Kwara, 1,838; Kebbi, 923; Katsina, 2,627; Kano, 3,951; Kaduna, 4,900; Jigawa, 2,200; Gombe, 1,322; Enugu, 3,321; Ebonyi, 2,050; Delta, 2,807; Cross River, 1,665; Borno, 2,174; Benue, 2,736; Bauchi, 2,092; Akwa Ibom, 2,641; Adamawa, 2,100; and Abia, 1,983 results.

The elections, however, recorded pockets of violence characterised by killings, intimidation of the electorate and general low turnout of eligible  voters.

Three persons were reportedly killed in Delta State, six in Benue, while one each was felled in Osun and Niger states and an ad hoc staff member of the Independent National Electoral Commission was shot dead in Rivers State. Another person was burnt to death in Katsina State.

INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner for Lagos State, Segun Agbaje, stated this when he addressed reporters at the VGC on Saturday.

Agbaje said members of the National Youth Service Corps deployed as ad hoc staff in the area were hesitant to enter the VGC estate as they alleged that they were held hostage in the February 25 Presidential and National Assembly elections.

Agbaje said the ad hoc staff instead set up voting materials in front of the estate but residents of the estate said they did not feel secure owing to fear of hoodlums’ invasion and disruption of the process, and, therefore, could not cast their votes.

He said the situation was beyond the security agents present, hence he and his team had to visit the area.

We have eight polling units here with 6,024 registered voters and out of which 5,624 people have their PVCs,” Agbaje said.

He added that two other polling units at the estate’s main gate were also affected.

Eight here (in the estate) and two outside,” he said.

“After due consultation and further directive from the national headquarters that we should remobilise here tomorrow (Sunday) morning by 8:30am to conduct the elections, by 8:30am tomorrow (Sunday) we will reconvene here.”

Agbaje also noted that the commission had got assurances from the chairman of the security committee of the estate of the safety of its staff and voters

INEC Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, while speaking on Arise TV on Friday, said the commission had learnt valuable lessons from the February 25 presidential and National Assembly elections.

The PUNCH reports that controversy trailed the failure of INEC to upload results as early as possible during the presidential election, with major opposition parties such as the Peoples Democratic Party and the Labour party holding on to this as one of the bases for rejecting the presidential poll result where Asiwaju Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress was declared winner by the commission.

“The law as of today prescribes a dual mode of either transmission of results or transfer of results,” Okoye said.

He said when polls closed at the level of the various units, the Presiding Officer who superintended the polling unit would enter the scores of the various political parties in form EC8A which is the polling unit level result.

He said, “The PO will sign that particular result sheet and stamp it, the PU agent or party agent if available will also countersign and copies will be given to them and the police.

“That original result will be what will be scanned and uploaded to our INEC Result Viewing Portal for public viewing. Not only that, the accreditation data that has arisen from that polling unit will also be uploaded, but the physical result and the BVAS itself will also be taken to the Registration Area Collation centre. According to him, the Collation Officer will have the benefit of seeing the original results and the BVAS itself and have the benefit of looking at the accreditation data as transmitted, and the result sheet as transmitted from the polling unit. That is the dual mode which the law has prescribed for the commission and that is the mode that we’re going to use for the purpose of this election.

Speaking on real-time IREV delivery on Saturday, Okoye said results would be transmitted as soon as the polls closed from various polling units.

“The commission is determined to improve on its previous performance. What we have done is to learn valuable lessons from previous elections that we conducted, and we’re going to put those lessons into our planning purposes and processes, and into our deployment purposes,” Okoye said.

Speaking on the commission’s preparedness, Okoye said, “As of today, what we’re having is what we call state assembly and governorship elections.

“In all the states of the federation, both the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System machines and all the sensitive election materials have left the Central Bank and the various state offices of the federation.

“We want to ensure that all polling units open on time. Secondly, we made sure that we reconfigured all the BVAS that will be used for this particular election in terms of making sure that the BVAS perform optimally and also making sure that some of the challenges we had in the previous elections do not reoccur.”

He added that INEC had also given refresher training to all categories of staff that would be involved in the elections.

He said the country would be having 28 governorship elections and 993 state assembly constituency elections, saying “It’s a huge election and INEC will be paying very close attention to what is going on in the various states.”